The Lost Archive: Traces of a Caliphate in a Cairo Synagogue.

• Author: de Ruiter, Brian

Rustow, Marina. The Lost Archive: Traces of a Caliphate in a Cairo Synagogue. Princeton & Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2020. i + 598 pages. Hardcover, $60.38.

The Lost Archive weaves together a fascinating glimpse into state documents created by the Fatimid caliphate during the eleventh and twelfth centuries for both specialists and non-specialists in the field. Neither Marina Rustow nor Princeton University Press are strangers to publishing in this field, and Princeton University is home to the Princeton Geniza Lab (with Rustow as Director). One motivating factor that prompted Rustow to engage in this project is the way in which scholars have represented the Fatimid caliphate on extreme ends of a spectrum, placing it on one end as "despotic" or on the other end as "laissez-faire." These problematic perceptions are a point she repeatedly articulates throughout the book and attributes them to "ignoring documents" (p.4). Rustow believes such perceptions have proven to be an additional barrier to uncovering more medieval Middle Eastern state documents since academics have assumed these states "would have had little need of them" since they were "led by arbitrary and unpredictable rulers" (p. 3). However, Rustow contends an examination of the documents that were in the Cairo Geniza provides us with an image of the Fatimid caliphate that fails to fit into either of these two extreme characterizations.

Aside from recognizing the wealth of these documents both in content and quantity, she examines their lifespans and afterlives to interrogate the nature of the Fatimid state. Rustow recognizes a certain degree of change and continuity existed between documents created by the Fatimid caliphate and those of its predecessors to the point where the Fatimids even "imitated" some of their documents. This leads to the question she poses about the degree of change that comes when a new power takes over, which is a question applicable even today. Rustow provides a very detailed and nuanced analysis of these documents, and utilizes Ibn al-Sayraffs writing to provide an insider perspective on the activities inside the chancery, although she recognizes his writing belies the actual number of people involved in it. Rustow devotes some attention to examining decrees and petitions: the latter being described as "rebuilt" from those of the Abbasids and served a functional purpose to mitigate the threat of rebellion by providing a mechanism to hear...